Ask Idealware: Sharepoint and Document Management

Michael asks: We are looking at integrated solutions that can help us with a number of things, including document management. We have a number of bids, and the prices vary widely, particularly in the area of document management - for instance, some of the less expensive solutions rely on Microsoft Sharepoint for document management, while others recommend Interwoven or Hummingbird/ Open Docs. It seems that Sharepoint offers a lot of what we need in terms of document management - the ability to link documents to cases, version control, check in/ check out functionality, and it's not clear what the more expensive solutions offer in addition. What does a robust enterprise document management system offer that something like Sharepoint doesn't?

Peter Campbell of EarthJustice and TechCafeteria says:
Commercial Document Management Systems (DMS) like OpenText and Hummingbird are more robust than the document management built into Sharepoint 2007 Server (MOSS) or 2003 Shared Services (WSS), but not by a large factor. Almost everything that can be done with the commercial DMS's can be done in Sharepoint. However, Commercial DMS's focus on that feature set and, are therefore, somewhat easier to deploy (mind you, none of these things are simple -- they all take a lot of configuration and planning). The real strength is that you can do much more with Sharepoint, building workflow automation and adding Intranet and Portal features that the other DMS's don't natively support.

A few things to factor in: Commercial DMS's keep files in the file system and index/catalog them. Sharepoint stores files as Blobs in SQL Server. If you are talking about a considerable amount of files, this could be very hardware intensive, and might limit you in other ways.

Also, Sharepoint comes in a few different flavors, and the version that comes free with Windows Server (WSS) is not nearly as powerful as the enterprise version (MOSS), one particular difference being the search functionality. The enterprise version is available via Techsoup though, which helps, but it requires purchasing both standard and enterprise licenses for each user. This is still likely a less expensive product than Hummingbird or Opentext.

Finally, the true Sharepoint 2007 Document Management functionality works with Office 2007. Earlier versions are not as tightly integrated. This is probably true for Exchange 2007 as well.

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